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UnitedHealth Group, Inc.


Self Description

February 2006: "UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, Uniprise, Specialized Care Services and Ingenix. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 65 million individuals nationwide."

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/news/rel2006/0224Transaction.htm

Third-Party Descriptions

February 2008: "The numbers are mainly compiled by an obscure company known as Ingenix, which — as it turns out — is owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest health insurers. Ingenix collects billing information from UnitedHealth and other health care payers to compile a database that is then used by the insurers to determine out-of-network reimbursement rates."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/opinion/18mon1.html

November 2006: Take the options-backdating scandal that has claimed such CEO scalps as...UnitedHealth's William McGuire (ousted after 14 years of spectacular success)....

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/13/magazines/fortune/options_scandals.fortune/index.htm

May 2006: At UnitedHealth Group, the insurer that has sold the greatest number of Medicare drug policies so far, through its alliance with AARP, Senior Vice President Reed V. Tuckson said, 'we have now gone to 24-hour days, seven days a week. We have live people to handle the volume.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051202081.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Evercare Organization Nov 19, 2007
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Ingenix Organization Jul 17, 2006
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) UnitedHealthCare (UHC) Organization Sep 18, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Richard H. Anderson Person Jul 17, 2006
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) James A. Johnson Person Feb 24, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Dr. William Francis McGuire M.D. Person Dec 29, 2006
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Prof. Donna E. Shalala Ph.D. Person Sep 19, 2006

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Aug 06, 2009 Big Insurance, Big Tobacco and You

QUOTE: the insurance industry is taking these [consumer fraud, incorrect statistics] and other flim-flams straight from the tobacco industry's playbook.

 PR Watch
Jul 01, 2009 Insured, but Bankrupted by Health Crises (The Work-Up)

QUOTE: an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

 New York Times
Jun 25, 2009 Big Health Firms Underpay Claims

QUOTE: Congressional investigators have discovered that large health insurers in every region of the country are relying on faulty databases to underpay millions of valid insurance claims.

 Wall Street Journal, The (WSJ)
Jul 15, 2008 Congress Overrides Bush’s Veto on Medicare

QUOTE: President Bush cast a futile veto on Tuesday, rejecting a bill that would protect doctors from cuts in their Medicare payments. But hours later, the House and Senate voted to override the veto, making the Medicare measure the fourth bill to become legislation over Mr. Bush’s opposition. The president’s veto message to the House said that he objected to the bill because it was “fiscally irresponsible” and relied on “short-term budget gimmicks” that do not address the long-term fiscal soundness of the Medicare program.

 New York Times
Feb 18, 2008 A Rip-Off by Health Insurers?

QUOTE: Have health insurers been systematically cheating patients and doctors of fair reimbursement for medical services? That is the disturbing possibility raised by an investigation of the industry’s arcane procedures for calculating “reasonable and customary” rates.

 New York Times
Feb 13, 2008 New York Investigates Medical Rate Setting

QUOTE: Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [is] investigating whether the nation’s health insurance companies [have] systematically forced patients to pay more than they should when using doctors or hospitals outside of their insurer’s networks...“We believe there was an industrywide scheme perpetuated by some of the nation’s largest health insurers to deceive and defraud consumers,” Mr. Cuomo said...

 New York Times
Aug 09, 2007 Alliance Seeks to Expand Dental Care to Poor Kids

QUOTE: "Children are suffering every day because we have systematically failed to provide them with the dental care they need," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.)... federal legislation to enhance pediatric dental care is in the works.

 Washington Post
Jun 27, 2007 Scant Drug Benefits Called Costly to Employers

QUOTE: Employers that shift too much of the cost of drugs to workers in their company health plans could wind up losing more than they save, through absenteeism and lost productivity, according to a study by health policy researchers.

 New York Times
Dec 30, 2006 Apple Admits Wrongdoing But Rallies Around Leader

QUOTE: Apple Computer disclosed yesterday that it had falsified approval of 7.5 million stock options for its chief executive and innovative co-founder, Steve Jobs, raising new questions about the role he may have played in a scandal that has swirled around the dynamic technology company for months.

 Washington Post
Dec 10, 2006 Poisoned by Scandal, Craving an Antidote

QUOTE: hundreds of executives are anxiously discussing how hard they should look for evidence of options backdating or other accounting problems. At companies where far lesser frauds or malfeasance emerge, executives face an even more ticklish quandary: Should they reveal everything, and then confront the hazards of bad publicity and outside investigations, or clean things up and hope that the problems will evaporate unnoticed? Rent-Way’s own journey, which came to a head last month, offers a chilling lesson: Even the most virtuous decisions have unforeseen, often damaging, consequences, and full disclosure may create as many problems as it solves.

 New York Times
Nov 14, 2006 Sleazy CEOs have even more options tricks: Backdating may be just the beginning: A lot of other suspicious stuff tends to happen when companies grant options.

QUOTE: even before Lie's backdating bombshell, scholars suspected that executives were using insider information for financial gain in timing options grants and news releases. Does that make backdating just the most obviously illegal tip of an iceberg of dodgy corporate behavior? And is anyone going to get in trouble for the other stuff?

 CNN/Money Magazine
Sep 13, 2006 Reviews mixed for directed health plans

QUOTE: Whether CDHPs are a new-and-improved form of health-care benefit or a big rip-off depends on your circumstances and perspective...In other words, it's the perfect health-care plan for those who have a lot of cash flow and very little need for health-care services.

 Bankrate.com
Aug 22, 2006 Backdating's New Blacklist

QUOTE: According to headhunters, employees of scandal-tainted firms often have difficulty finding new jobs, even if they weren't directly involved in any nefarious activity.

 Forbes
Aug 18, 2006 Side Effects: Heart Procedure Is Off the Charts in an Ohio City

QUOTE: But some outside experts say they are concerned that Elyria is an example, albeit an extreme one, of how medical decisions in this country can be influenced by financial incentives and professional training more than by solid evidence of what works best for a particular patient.

 New York Times
Jul 17, 2006 Bush Administration Plans Medicare Changes

QUOTE: The Bush administration says it plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 percent to 30 percent...to improve the accuracy of payment rates...the effects could be devastating.

 New York Times
Jun 08, 2006 Unlocking The Mystery Of Health Care Pricing

QUOTE: Both physicians and insurers profit from the current system in which pricing is so complicated that it is sometimes impossible to determine what a given procedure or office visit will cost.

 Forbes
May 25, 2006 The Check Is Not in the Mail

QUOTE: Tardiness or refusal to pay what doctors consider legitimate medical claims may add as much as 15 to 20 percent in overhead costs for physicians, forcing them to pursue those claims or pass along the costs to other patients...

 New York Times
May 13, 2006 GOP Wavers On Penalties In Medicare Drug Plan

QUOTE: key Republicans are examining ways to remove or reduce financial penalties the Bush administration plans to charge people who try to join the program after the enrollment cutoff...

 Washington Post